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Richard Wurman says, and I agree, there are only five ways of organisation:
Let's examine when to use each one.
Location
Any information that has any spatial aspect is a candidate for organisation by location. Readers are used to living in a two or three dimensional world and relate well to information that is presented in two dimensions as some sort of map, plan, scale model or physical 2D representation.
Time
Any information that has any ordering in time may be suitable for presentation in time sequence. Common examples include: steps in a procedure, chronologies of events, project work plans, travel itineraries and biographies. Time sequence is basic to any chart or graph showing change over time.
Hierarchies
In this case, Wurman is talking about ordered scales based on some magnitude. We commonly see lists ordered from largest to smallest or smallest to largest. Examples include: lists of mountains by height, river by length or volume, countries and cities by population, and earthquakes by magnitude.
Category
Putting items into categories, and sub-categories, is so basic that we take it for granted. It's basic to supermarkets and product catalogues, diseases and medicines, encyclopedias and library shelves. Imagine a library where the books were shelved by publishing date! Categories are extremely useful.
Alphabet
Putting items into alphabetic order is often the only option for useful access, especially if the lists are large. Look at telephone directories, electoral roles, school class lists and dictionaries. I put alphabet at the end of the list because I would tend to give it lower priority than the other four methods of organisation.
Combined Organization Schemes
It's often very helpful to combine these organization methods. You can put items into categories and list the categories alphabetically; and also make the items alphabetic within category. Or you could have a hierarchy within category. Some information architectures will combine three or more of these information schemes.
Multiply access paths allow the reader to use a combination of information location strategies. For example, a biography may present a persons life as a list of events in time sequence. The books index may list all the main events in alphabetic order. A map could also show the main locations in the story, and a family tree would show people grouped in categories by kinship.
Any organisation is better than none
Take time to analyse what method will help the reader find and understand the information you present.
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